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No roses without aphids.

The roses in my garden are responding enormously to
the sunny spring weather. Alas all those fresh green leaves are immediately
covered with aphids. Fortunately I know an effective method to combat them.

In the early years of my garden career I had no green
fingers at all. Therefore I asked my grandfather a tip how to combat aphids.

"Aphids?" My grandfather said: "You only
have to be sure you catch the first one.” What kind of advice was that? A
little confused, I went home. Catch the first aphid? There were thousands of
them! As always I started spraying with a mix of alcohol and soapy water to get
rid of them.

Because I am not a very patient garden woman however, after
some time I stopped making soapy mixtures to combat aphids. As the garden
progressed I simply did not have enough time to go on with that method. Nowadays,
if I see aphids during my daily tour through the garden, I simply squeeze them
between thumb and forefinger. By doing so you will have the plague under
control within a week.

The other day I suddenly realized that that was
exactly what my grandfather told me to do. "Catch the first aphid".

I have been doing this for many years now. And is that
not a very organic and eco way to combat aphids? Of course I am also helped a
lot by the ladybugs, the great tits and the wasps. Those animals love aphids
for lunch.

As I tell this story to the visitors of my garden they
really are horrified. But I do not care because it works.

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formation. All the powergoes to
the bulb. I hope thisresults
in a lot of flowers next year.

Tulip growers deadhead their tulips
too.Only this is not done by hand, but withan
ingeniousmachine. Noback pain!
I can’t help it, but I alwaysthink, whata
waste. All thosebeautiful flowersthrown carelesslyinthe
paths.